Soy sauce during pregnancy - the benefits and harm

Oriental cuisine is considered one of the most popular in the world. The massive demand for it is due to a unique combination of ingredients, due to which dishes have a unique taste. And unchanged addition to Japanese or Chinese dishes is soy sauce. It transforms the taste of food and makes it more saturated. Can pregnant women use soy sauce with food and how to choose it in stores?

Soy Sauce: Specific Features

Soy sauce appeared about two thousand years ago in one of the Chinese Buddhist temples. According to the canon, the monks could not eat meat and animal products. Therefore, the local chef was looking for ways to diversify the rather bland daily menu, consisting mainly of rice.Using soybeans, wheat, water and salt, he received a unique product, which we now call soy sauce. Gradually, fashion has spread to it all over China, and today it is widely used in many world cuisines.

The preparation of soy sauce is a multi-level and rather complicated process. First of all, clean soybeans should be mixed with roasted wheat grains and soaked in salted water. All components are thoroughly mixed and placed in deep vats in which they are left to ferment. The process can take from a month to several years. After the sauce is infused, it is filtered and bottled.

Soy sauce is used as marinade for meat and fish, it is filled with salads, and in some varieties it can even be fried. On sale can be found as a pure product, and with the addition of ginger, garlic and other spices.

The composition of soy sauce

Let's try to figure out what can be potentially useful soy sauce for a pregnant woman:

1. The percentage of salt in soy sauce is only 6-8%, so it can be a safe alternative to pure salt.
2. Its caloric content is 69 kcal per 100 ml of product. This allows you to add it to food without fear of fat deposits.
3. Its antioxidants prevent rapid aging and protect the mother's body from viral and bacterial infections. Antioxidant soy sauce exceeds the classic lemon and black currant more than 100 times.
4. In soy sauce (due to the technology of its preparation), live probiotic bacteria are formed that stabilize the bowels and help in the fight against constipation, which is considered one of the main problems of women in the situation.
5. Folic acid, which is recognized as the main vitamin of pregnancy, enters the body along with seasoning. Its lack may adversely affect the fetal CNS, leading to all sorts of malformations.
6. Seasoning contains more than 20 essential amino acids that are responsible for the correct metabolism and assimilation of nutrients. Without them, it is impossible to build muscle tissue of the fetus and the development of major organs and systems.
7. The composition of soy sauce is marked by a high concentration of vitamin C, which is one of the pillars of healthy immunity.
8. Seasoning speeds up metabolism.This allows a pregnant woman not to be afraid of gaining weight, but rather to get rid of extra pounds without reducing the nutritional value of food.

Potential harm

Natural soy sauce is an absolutely harmless product that can be eaten in small quantities (2 tablespoons per day) for pregnant women as well. But to find it on the shelves of supermarkets is very difficult. More than 90% of the options presented in the sale are cheap analogues with a large number of preservatives and stabilizers. Since organic sauce has to be infused under natural conditions for at least a year, manufacturers accelerate this process by adding fermentation protein to it. Such soy sauce is potentially dangerous for pregnant women, because "stuffed" with chemistry. There is no benefit from its use. More likely to increase the chance of food poisoning.

Due to the high content of sodium chloride, daily consumption of soy sauce can trigger salt deposits. Also, if a woman suffers from chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, gastritis and irritation of the gastric mucosa, it is better to refuse this seasoning.

Rules for buying soy sauce

If you still bought a surrogate, then one tasting is enough to understand what chemistry is in front of you. The taste of artificial soy sauce is very pronounced, salty, after it it can even bake a little in the mouth. In a natural medium, it is completely different - delicate, with a slight sourness or sweetness. And the color of a natural sauce is brown-red, transparent, unlike a sauce prepared under conditions of artificial fermentation, in which it is deep brown.

How to store soy sauce?

It is better to keep an open bottle in the refrigerator, which will prevent direct sunlight from entering it. It can be left in the original packaging, and can be poured into a dispenser, the design of which will protect it from evaporation.

Natural soy sauce is a seasoning that goes well with almost any dish. A pregnant woman can add it to vegetable salads, mixing with olive oil, or pickling a bird in it. Components of the sauce have a positive effect on the body, without threatening the child.

Video: what happens if you drink a lot of soy sauce